Queen Of Shadows By Sarah J. Maas

Queen Of Shadows By Sarah J. MaasQueen Of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne Of Glass #4
Published by Bloomsbury on September 1, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Goodreads
four-half-stars

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past… She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return. The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

 

Even though I pre-ordered this book, there was such a furor surrounding its release that I wanted to give it a little space before I read and reviewed it.  I’m glad I did.  Queen Of Shadows continues the high stakes game that Celaena, now Aelin, is playing in order to gain her freedom, her friend’s freedom and her kingdom.  I suppose you could say that every book in this series thus far has been a  high stakes game, but I felt that some of the story lines that didn’t really gel for me in Heir of Fire, came into focus in Queen of Shadows.  This mostly applies to the subplot involving the witches.  I really love where that story line went and the way it slowly connected to what Aelin was doing in Rifthold.  In fact, I hope that we will see even more of the witches in the next two books because they are brutal warriors and complicated women. I really loved them. Plus, they ride wyverns, so what’s not to like?

There was much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth over a broken ship in this book, and while I was very apprehensive going in (this was part of the reason for waiting to read it) I am on board with the new configurations.  While it stumbled just a teensy weensy bit, at first, in its execution, I soon saw the reasoning behind the decision and I thought it fit well within the story.  More than romance, though, was the way that friendship played such an important role in this book.  It wasn’t just the I’ve got your back, bruh type of friendship, it was the I will burn down the world and sacrifice myself for you type of friendship.  So, while there was romance (and very swoony romance, at that) I felt more strongly about the bonds of friendship that were tested, then strengthened.  The excellent pacing, the well written action sequences, and the incredible world building would have fallen flat without the relationships that were at the core of this story.  So, I urge you to read it if you haven’t already.  Queen of Shadows was excellent and emotional and everything I have come to expect from this series.

 

four-half-stars

About Sarah J. Maas

A New York native, Sarah currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and dog. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hamilton College in 2008 with a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Religious Studies.

Kate


7 responses to “Queen Of Shadows By Sarah J. Maas

  1. I’m so happy that you enjoyed QUEEN OF SHADOWS! Once again, Sarah has managed to outdo herself – expanding the world, allowing these characters to grow and just moving the story forward at such an excellent pace. I absolutely cannot wait for the next one!

  2. I’m so glad you liked this book! I’m excited to see more witches in the next book too – I actually didn’t really enjoy the chapters from Manon’s POV until this book, but she ended up growing on me! And I agree completely about the friendships in this book, I really enjoyed reading about them. So excited for book five!

  3. Currently reading this one – after the hype and rather intense reactions, both positive and negative, to this book, I decided to wait a while before I picked it up. And yeah, while I’m sad about my ship, I do see the logic behind the decision, and also, y’know, I’m reading for more than just the romance! The friendship factor is definitely the most powerful aspect for me.

  4. Wonderful review! I held off a little bit on reading this one too because of all the hype and buzz. You know. I’m behind how things are going in the series too (even the ship). I felt this one was a tad loooong. I don’t know. I still loved it though.

  5. I’m not ready to read this yet. It’s not just that I’m sad about the ship, I hate when a character is sort of … villainized to untangle a relationship (and that’s what I heard happened but haven’t read the book so…)

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